08.08.2011 (652 Days Ago)
| Title | GYPH | ||
| Country | United States |
Gryphon Gold Corporation (OTCBB: GYPH) (TSX: GGN) Gryphon Gold Corporation (OTCBB: GYPH) Gryphon Gold Corporation Suite 711-675 West Hastings Street Vancouver, BC Canada V6B 1N2 Tel: +1.888.261.2229 Fax: +1.604.608.3262 John Key, CEO Email: jkey@gryphongold.com Investor Relations Contact: Drew Farion Phone: 1-888-744-8777 Email: drew@pricetargetmedia.com Website:
Company Overview
The principal asset of Gryphon Gold Corporation is the Borealis Property, 27.5 square miles located in the Walker Lane gold belt of western Nevada. The one square mile Central Borealis zone is accredited with 1.4 million ounces of measured and indicated gold resources and 1.1 million ounces of inferred gold resources. Previous operators have mined and heap leached over 500,000 ounces of gold from this zone during their collective 10-year tenure. There are at least five other highly prospective zones that are currently being explored that have the potential to host significant gold resources.
Key Investor Highlights:
All the permits are in place to begin mining gold; took 4 yrs, cost $5 million.
Within four months of construction of the leach pad, the company generates positive cash flow; at 8 months its generated $7.2 million.
Cost of production; $475 per ounce. Low-costs due to open pit, reworking existing material – 7 year supply of 377,000 ounce proven/probable gold ore generates 250,000 net ounces (@ $1200 per ounce, forecasting $250 million revenue).
2.5 million ounces more of measured and indicated reserves – all (no. 3 & 4.) within one square of the 27.5 mile Borealis Property - vast amount more to be added to reserves near-term.
Phase 2 (next 10 months) doubles leach pad capacity, install carbon filtering plant, takes recovery from 40% to 75%.
Generates $22 million by 18th month. Gryphon expands existing pits and reserves – both proven, probable as well as measured and indicated – still within same 1 square mile area.
Unexplored West side of property to be mapped and drilled to ready for production; potential ore deposits are vast – yet not disclosed in 43-101 report. Mapping to begin in yr 2, setup for open pit and leach pad in yr. 3.
Released power point approved by TSX that gives revenue Outlook; averaged over 5 yrs, $42 million revenue, $19 million earnings; based on 150 million shares outstanding (86.4 million currently issued and outstanding), Co. would earn 10 cents per share!
Only junior gold mining company to step to production in 2010 – a very rare event!
Surrounded by major gold producers - Great Basin Gold (AMEX: GBG) just 3-miles to the South of Borealis Property; Kinross mine 100 miles to the East.
Why Gryphon Gold Corporation Makes Sense Now!
Gryphon's Properties
Borealis Property, Nevada
In 1978, the Borealis gold deposit was discovered by S. W. Ivosevic (1979), a Houston International Minerals Company geologist (a subsidiary of Houston Oil and Minerals Corporation). The property was acquired through a lease agreement with the Whitney Partnership, which later became the Borealis Partnership, following Houston’s examination of the submitted property. Initial discovery of ore-grade gold mineralization in the Borealis district and subsequent rapid development resulted in production beginning in October 1981 as an open-pit mining and heap leaching operation. Tenneco Minerals, Inc. (“Tenneco”) acquired the assets of Houston International Minerals in late 1981 and continued production from the Borealis open-pit mine. Subsequently, several other gold deposits were discovered along the generally northeast-striking Borealis trend and mined by open-pit methods. Also, several small deposits were discovered further to the west in the outlying area known as Orion’s Belt (encompassing the Cerro Duro, Jaimes Ridge, and Purdy Peak deposits). Tenneco’s exploration in early 1986 discovered the Freedom Flats deposit and then in October 1986, Echo Bay Mines (“Echo Bay”) acquired the Nevada assets of Tenneco Minerals.
With the completion of mining of the readily available oxide ore in the Freedom Flats deposit and other deposits in the district, active mining was terminated in January 1990, and leaching operations ended in late 1990. All eight open-pit operations are reported to have produced 10.7 million tons of ore averaging 0.059 opt Au (Golden Phoenix Minerals, 2000). Gold recovered from the material placed on heaps was approximately 500,000 ounces plus an estimated 1.5 million ounces of silver. Reclamation of the closed mine began immediately and continued for several years.Echo Bay decided not to continue with its own exploration, and the property was farmed out as a joint venture in 1990-91 to Billiton Minerals, which drilled 28 reverse circulation (“RC”) exploration drill holes totaling 8,120 feet on outlying targets. Billiton dropped the property with no retained interest. Santa Fe Pacific Mining, Inc. (“Santa Fe Pacific”) then entered into a joint venture with Echo Bay in 1992-93 (Kortemeier, 1993), compiled data, constructed a digital drill hole database, and drilled 32 deep RC and core holes, including a number of holes into the Graben deposit. Santa Fe Pacific had success in identifying new sulfide-zone gold mineralization but terminated the joint venture because of reduced exploration budgets. Echo Bay completed all reclamation requirements in 1994, and then terminated its lease agreement with the Borealis Partnership in 1996.
In late 1996, J.D. Welsh & Associates, Inc. (“Welsh”) negotiated an option-to-lease agreement for the Borealis property from the Borealis Partnership and immediately joint-ventured the project with Cambior Exploration U.S.A., Inc. (“Cambior”). During 1996, Welsh drilled 11 auger holes (totaling 760 feet) into Heap 1 to determine if there was sufficient remaining gold to consider reprocessing the heap. During 1997, Cambior performed a major data compilation program and several gradient Induced Polarization (“IP”) surveys. In 1998, Cambior drilled ten holes, which succeeded in extending the Graben deposit and in identifying new zones of gold mineralization near Sunset Wash. Cambior terminated the joint venture in late 1998 because of severe budget constraints.
During the Cambior joint-venture period in late 1997, Golden Phoenix entered into an agreement to purchase a portion of the Welsh interest in the property. Welsh sold its remaining interest in the property to a third party, who in turn sold it to Golden Phoenix; therefore, in 2000 the company controlled 100 percent interest in the lease (Golden Phoenix Minerals, 2000). Golden Phoenix maintained the property during the years of low gold prices, compiled a database, validated the drill hole data, and developed new mineral resource estimates for the entire property.
In July 2003, the Borealis property was joint-ventured by Golden Phoenix with BMC, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Gryphon Gold Corporation. BMC, the operator of the joint venture, originally controlled the property through an option agreement with Golden Phoenix whereby BMC could earn a 70 percent joint-venture interest in the property. BMC had the right to acquire its interest in the Borealis property with a combination of qualified expenditures on work programs, and/or making payments to Golden Phoenix, and/or delivering a feasibility study over a period of 5½ years beginning July 2003. In January 2005, BMC purchased 100 percent interest in the lease agreement, and Golden Phoenix surrendered its interest in the property.
Copper Basin Property, Idaho
Gryphon Gold controls the Copper Basin copper/silver prospect with 26 unpatented lode claims. These claims surround 10 patented, privately owned, lode claims that formed the center of the historic Copper Basin mining district. Gryphon’s claims cover all obvious copper mineralization outside of the patented claims.
Copper Basin is located in Custer County, Idaho and about 20 miles west of the town of Mackay. The district is known for high grade copper and silver mineralization from wide quartz veins. The property hosts both high-grade underground copper silver deposits and open pit low-grade copper oxide.
The district and Gryphon’s property has received very little modern exploration. The only recent work was done by Phelps Dodge Exploration in 1997 where they performed geologic mapping and sampling and drilled two holes. Highlights include a 25 foot serious of chip samples across several prospect pits and an adit portal, which averaged 5.7% copper and 10.3 opt silver. A 20 foot serious of chip samples perpendicular to the previous line averaged 1.86% copper. These assay results confirm the same underground mining production of the structures.
Two oriented soil lines yielded +200 ppm copper anomalies, which were tested by four drill holes. Hole 1 intersected 225 feet (50 to 275’) of 0.20% copper. Hole 2 intersected 235 feet (70 to 305’) of 0.23% copper and 35 feet (315 to 350’) of 1.79 ppm gold. Preliminary testing of surface samples showed a 95% leach recovery of the copper, with only moderate acid consumption.
More Borealis Property Information
Principal Assets
The Borealis Property, 27.5-square-miles located in the Walker Lane gold belt of western Nevada.
Mineral Deposits
The Borealis district contains multiple coalescing hydrothermal centers having alteration and mineralization characteristic of high-sulfidation systems. Gold deposits of the district typically have high-grade gold mineralization centrally located along steeply dipping structures and have lower-grade gold mineralization both surrounding the high-grade and commonly occurring in more permeable volcanic rocks in relatively flat-lying zones. The gold deposits with minor amounts of silver mineralization are hosted by Miocene andesitic flows, laharic breccias and volcaniclastic tuffs, which generally strike northeasterly and dip shallowly to the northwest. Pediment gravels cover the altered-mineralized volcanic rocks at lower elevations along the mountain front and there is potential for discovery of more blind deposits, similar to the Graben and the Freedom Flats deposits.
The surface "footprints'' of the high-grade pods found to date are rather small and can be easily missed with patterns of too widely spaced geophysical surveys and drill holes. Most of the drill holes on the property completed by prior operators, including the Graben deposit, are oriented vertically and therefore did not adequately sample the steep higher-grade zones. Drill-hole spacing and orientation have compounded the historical underestimation of grades within the district. In addition an indicated coarse gold component can best be captured with very careful sampling of drill cuttings and core and by collecting large samples.
Several drill holes to the north of Freedom Flats and west of Borealis encountered gold within the younger alluvium down drainage from known deposits. These holes trace a gold-bearing zone that, in plan, appears to outline a paleochannel of a stream or a gently sloping hillside that may have had its origin in the eroding Borealis deposit. The zone is at least 2,500 feet long, up to 500 feet wide, and several tens to 100 feet thick. At this point, it is unknown if this is a true placer deposit, an alluvial deposit of broken ore, or some combination of both. Additional drilling and beneficiation tests are needed to determine if an economic gold deposit exists in the alluvium.
Exploration
Since the late 1970s, considerable exploration has been completed at the Borealis Property, with the primary objective of finding near-surface deposits with oxide-type gold mineralization. Exploration work has consisted of field mapping, surface sampling, geochemical surveys, geophysical surveys and shallow exploration drilling. Only limited drilling and geological fieldwork have been completed in areas covered by pediment gravels, even though Freedom Flats and Graben were unknown blind deposits without surface expression when discovered beneath the younger pediment gravels.
Many geophysical surveys have been conducted by others in the Borealis district since 1978. In addition, regional magnetics, gravity maps, and other information are available through governmental sources. The most useful geophysical data from the exploration programs has been induced polarization (IP) (resistivity and chargeability) and aeromagnetics. A more detailed IP survey of the Central Borealis district was conducted in November and December 2005.
Areas with known occurrences of gold mineralization that has been defined by historical exploration drilling and has had historical mine production include: Borealis, East Ridge and Gold View, Northeast Ridge, Freedom Flats, Deep Ore Flats (also known as Polaris), Cerro Duro, and Jaimes Ridge. All of these deposits still have gold mineralization remaining in place, contiguous with the portions of each individual deposit that previously has been mined.
Discovery potential of the Borealis Property includes:
Gryphon Gold Resources
Gryphon Gold's management, stakeholders and professional advisors have a proven track record of successfully selecting and adding significant value to mining development projects. The Company's objectives can be achieved in a constant or declining gold price environment by utilizing the team's extensive mining and financial industry experience to select and actively manage highly qualified development projects within a long-term planning perspective. The team of senior managers, together with their team of consultants/contractors and advisor/stakeholders, will bring the first opportunity to initial cash flow. Long-term middle management will be engaged to replace, supplant or augment the consultants/contractors as cash flow economics allow and dictate.
JOHN KEY - CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER AND DIRECTOR
Mr. Key was appointed February 5, 2008 as Chief Operating Officer and has since been appointed President, CEO, and Director (July 21, 2008). Mr. Key is a graduate of the University of Missouri - Rolla with an M.S. in Mining Engineer. He possesses 32 years of extensive mining experience. He worked for the Teck Cominco organization from 1973 to 2004 during which time he was directly responsible for running, in succession, the Magmont, Polaris, and Red Dog mines and also served as General Manager Projects. Mr. Key oversaw over $300 million in capital expansions at Red Dog.
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